R. Petrella
 | Water economy |
|---|---|
11 October 2006 16h30-18h30 CET |
Ricardo Petrella is most known as the initiator of the Lisbon group, bringing together more than twenty parties including universities, companies and the cultural sector to counterbalance both the overly pessimistic and the overly optimistic views on the globalisation of economy. Petrella has worked for the European Commission and UNESCO and he has taught in numerous universities all over the world. In the nineties, he founded the International Committee for the Global Water Contract and published a trilogy among which the much-acclaimed "The Water Manifesto." For VENUS Seminars, Petrella will lecture on water economy. He will discuss the importance of water and the world's struggle with water rights.
Biography
Professor Riccardo Petrella is the initiator and former president of the Lisbon Group, bringing together 21 parties including universities, company CEO's and policy makers in the cultural sector to counterbalance both the overly pessimistic and the overly optimistic views on the globalization of the economy. Professor Petrella received his doctorate in Sociology and Political Science from the University of Florence, Italy. He currently lectures at the Universite Catholique de Louvain and the Europa College in Bruges, Belgium. He has been secretary general of the Italian committee for the development of social sciences and lateron he became the director of the European Center for Research in Social Sciences of UNESCO in Vienna, Austria. For sixteen years, he was also responsible for the FAST-programme (Forecasting and Assessment in Science and Technology) at the European Commission. He then went on to head the Social Research Division. In 1992 he founded the European Interuniversity Association for Education on Society, Science and Technology. From 1992 until October 2000, he was chairman of the Association for the European University of Environment in Paris. During the nineties, he also wrote three books "Limits to Competition," "The Common Good," and "The Water Manifesto." In 1997, he founded the International Committee for the Global Water Contract, one expression of his adamant claim for water to be included as a human right.
Abstract
The most diffused idea about water is "the water crisis", particularly at world level. The crisis, - i.e. increasing lack of accessible water resources – is considered to be mainly due to a mismatch between a growing demand and a stable or limited, not expandable, supply. The crisis is supposed to become more and more severe in the future. The key word is "scarcity". The only realistic remedy - it's said – is to give an economic value to water and let the open-market mechanism "govern" the production, access and uses of water. This view is ill-based and misleading. The lecture will challenge it. The view is at the origin of a few major misconceptions and collective practice. A first misconception is the commodification of water. Water is no longer seen as a common and public good but a commodity as any other. Access to water is essential and unavoidable for life and economic activities but its access is not recognized as a human right. People must pay to have access to water. I have called this process "the coca-colisation of water". A second misconception is the liberalisation and privatisation of water services. Almost everywhere (remarkable exceptions are the United States, Uruguay and now Bolivia) water services have been privatized. Negotiations at GATS level within the WTO framework have systematically tried to include water services into the list of services to be liberalized. Water ceases to be a social good, a sacred element of life and culture. It is reduced to a rare and therefore high value good for profit. Actually, water is named "the blue gold". A third misconception is the transformation of water into a strategic resource for the economic national security. The consequence of this is the militarization of water. The more water is scarce and rare, the more frequent and numerous will be inter-state and within the state conflicts and wars for water. In such a context, water will not be a source of peace and cooperation but of war and rivalry. The future is at risk of a water economy, based on competition for survival. This is what I suggest to name "the petrolisation of water". This lecture will identify and discuss an alternative vision, i.e. a water economy inspired by a multi-fold perspective: a human right and social cohesion perspective, a "res-publica" perspective, an ecological perspective, a democratic citizens participation perspective, an ethical and spiritual perspective.